Healthy Communities Collaborative
The award winning Healthy Communities Collaborative was developed under the NHS Plan heading “new partnerships to tackle inequalities”. It is an innovative approach which puts community members at the forefront of service change, at the same time as developing deprived communities. The key objectives of the collaborative are to engage community members in using improvement techniques to impact on health issues.
Reducing Falls in Older People
Reducing Falls is one of the topics covered by the Healthy Communities Collaborative, initially teams were recruited across three areas of England, to test out the idea over a one-year pilot. The teams consisted of a mixture of community members and staff from relevant local agencies, including the voluntary sector. There were - deliberately - a greater proportion of community members than practitioners in each team. At the end of the pilot, a reduction in falls in the over-65 age group of 32% was achieved. This enabled the spread of the work to begin a second, and subsequently a third, wave. Key Points
- Putting community members at the forefront of evidence based service change
- Using improvement techniques to reduce falls in older people
- Devised template for multi-agency working and established new partnerships to tackle inequalities
Achievements
- Within first year, sites involved reduced falls in the over 65s by 32%
- Built social capital so stimulating a desire in communities to move on to other topics
- Removed many barriers which prevented organisations from engaging with communities
For more information see Healthy Communities Reducing Falls
Widening Access to a Healthy Diet
Food and access to a healthy diet are fundamental to good health and disease prevention, and are significant issues on the health inequalities agenda. Based on a framework for food policy by Dr. Martin Caraher of the Food Policy Studies Unit, London, the UK Improvement Foundation devised a program for widening access to a healthy diet. The intention is to ensure that the work of the teams fits into both national and local policy, and supports the objectives of those plans. The program involves community-led multi-agency teams.
The collaborative is particularly focused on low-income groups. The teams focus separately on the needs of older people and children and families.
Key Points
- Addresses deficit in skills and knowledge around food and cooking
- Creates a template for multi-agency working
- Removes barriers which prevent organisations from engaging with communities
- Builds social capital to stimulate a desire in the communities to move onto other topics
Achievements
- 628 people attended basic food hygiene and cooking courses, facilitated by the Healthy Communities Collaborative members, across the 3 original sites in the first year.
- Healthy Communities Collaborative members who have undertaken training, are working with GPs to address the needs of newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetics to help them control and manage their condition by diet.
- Healthy Communities Collaborative members are working with parents and staff in 20 schools in Northampton to improve availability and knowledge in relation to healthy eating. The work includes: teaching cookery, school vegetable bags schemes and healthy lunch boxes.
- Working across 3 areas, 30 corner shops were recorded by local residents, as having an improvement of 17.2% in the accessibility and availability of healthier foods and awareness of government guidelines on healthy eating.
- Work has moved into the residential care sector, where members are analysing the composition and variety of meals provided. They are actively involving the older residents in planning menus and in saying what dishes they would like included.
For more information see Healthy Communities Widening Access to a HealthyDiet
